


The Angel In The Machine

by FujurPreux



Category: Brave Police J-Decker, The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Canon Temporary Character Death, Crossover, Gen, both times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 10:40:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13432983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujurPreux/pseuds/FujurPreux
Summary: Spoilers for the entirety of Brave Police and up to "Leap to Faith" (Season 2, episode 10) of the Good Place.Whenever Deckerd dies, he ends up in Janet's Void because Management doesn't know what to do with him.





	The Angel In The Machine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laurus_nobilis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurus_nobilis/gifts), [Sadisticsparkle (sadisticsparkle)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadisticsparkle/gifts).



I

 

Deckerd found himself parked in front of a beautiful mansion without a clear memory of how he got there. He was on his own, which meant Yuuta should be inside, interviewing people and finding clues for a case.

But what case was that, again?

He looked around. Nothing in the gorgeous garden seemed familiar. Worse yet, the last thing that came to mind was his birthday party. The fun they were having and the face poor Yuuta made when Deckerd pretended to ignore him, all of which had been about one hour ago, according to his internal clock.

That didn’t make sense. Gunmax and Drillboy were supposed to be on duty, and Commissioner Saejima had promised that, even if there was an emergency, Deckerd would be the last one to be called into action. The worst part, though, was Deckerd not remembering any calls, any instructions. He didn’t even remember driving there. No, scratch that. Had Yuuta given him the present he wanted to surprise him with? One would think of that as the most important part of the evening, and yet…

As a police officer and a responsible person, Deckerd shouldn’t want to take a peek through the windows of the mansion. It would be rude and inappropriate. But seeing Yuuta would put him at ease. It wouldn’t matter if he had to wait for an explanation. Then again, he didn’t want the people in there to raise a complaint because he had happened to chose the wrong window to look through. Specially without a good reason.

Well, he needed to be filled in with the details of the case they were working on, didn’t he? That was a good reason. Not an excuse. A reason. It would help him do his job and to make informed decisions. So yes, he should take a peek to find Yuuta and talk to him—without necessarily telling him about the gap in his memory. Why worry the Boss when there was no need and he had better things to think about?

However, as he got ready to change, a nice-looking Caucasian woman in a blue suit came out from the mansion.

“Oh, but what do we have here?” she asked in a cheerful tone and a flawless Japanese as she went down the stairs. “I don’t usually find presents on my porch that I didn’t get myself. Well, to be honest, that never happens. It can’t happen.” She leaned forward toward Deckerd’s window and, her smile never faltering, she whispered, “It’s literally impossible.”

“I’m afraid I’m not a present, ma’am,” Deckerd answered, trying to sound polite despite being miffed.

She bounced and clapped. “See? I was right!”

“Excuse me. It’s embarrassing having to ask, but could you tell me if Yuuta is inside the building?” he asked after a brief moment of hesitation. “Yuuta Tomonaga. A detective with the Brave Police, like me.”

She blinked and then smiled again. “According to my database, Yuuta Tomonaga and all the Brave Police except from one member are accounted for in Nanamagari, Japan, Earth! I know that to be true because my database gets updated in real time with information from all over the universe.”

Funny how a phrase he could understand so very little of could be both worrisome and a relief at the same time. But the word database sparked Deckerd’s personal interest toward the woman.

“What do you mean?” he asked. “Where are we? Who are you? Are you an artificial intelligence?”

“Close! I am Janet and this is my Void. Yes, I know it doesn’t look the part, but that’s how it’s called.” She elbowed Deckerd’s door and added in a conspiratorial tone, “We’re programmed to only remember it as a boundless, barren nothingness when we’re in our assigned neighborhoods so no one wants to come. The Void also guards a forbidden-but-incredible power for good that could change life as it’s currenly known, but humans aren’t allowed access it unless they’re ready for it, and that is extremely rare.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t follow.”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry your pretty head about it just yet. Now,” she walked around him. “I shouldn’t be asking these questions because I’m a repository of infinite knowledge, specially here in my Void. On the other hand, it’s exciting to have a mystery to solve! Point being, what are you doing here, Dumpson?”

“I’m Deckerd.” He didn’t bother to hide his annoyance this time. “And I have no idea.”

“Oh. Right. Deckerd! I knew it started with a D.” She stopped and grabbed something from Deckerd’s roof. “Aha! A note!” As soon as she had it in her hand, it became a speck of light that disappeared within her. “Uh… Ouch!”

“What was that?” Deckerd asked. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. It was an update with information about you.”

Part of him didn’t want to ask. But he also knew he needed to be brave. Besides, he did need the information. How else could he make informed choices, as he had previously concluded? So he went for it. “What did it say?”

“This is the kind of thing that should be said looking at other person’s eyes. You have eyes, don’t you?”

“Yes. I do have eyes. Give me a second, please.” Deckerd moved backwards so he could change to his robot form. “Ready,” he said, even if he wasn’t.

“Wow, you’re so tall. I’m not sure I can see your eyes. Can you come closer?”

Deckerd went down on one knee.

“Closer.”

He sat down.

“Closer.”

Fighting a sigh, he knelt down and leaned forward until he was all but kowtowing. But now his face was at the same height as Janet’s. “Is this better?”

“There you go. Thank you.” She patted his cheek and, good to her word, she looked into Deckerd’s eyes as she spoke. “This is difficult to say, but you’re ‘dead.’ Although, to be honest, it wasn’t difficult to say at all. It’s just what’s expected in a case like this. Also, I only did the air quotes because that’s how the word is written: between quotes.”

“ _What?_ What do you mean dead?”

“Not dead. ‘Dead.’ With the quotes. The higher ups in management aren’t sure yet what to do with you. The only thing they know is that you don’t qualify for the Bad Place. So while they figure it out, you were assigned to the Void of a random Janet.”

“But. _How?_ ” Deckerd mumbled. His fingers pressed on his knees so hard he was close to dent them. “That makes no sense! I would remember something like that!”

“Not necessarily. It’s common for new arrivals to bury that memory until they’re ready to confront it.”

“I don’t – I –”

Janet patted Deckerd’s knee. “Hey, it’s fine. You’ll get there. You have eternity for that. I must let you know, though, that you’re neglecting the most important part of all of this.”

Deckerd raised his head to look at her. Even through his confusion, he felt compelled to gather as much information as possible. Maybe it was the detective in him. “What is that?”

“Now I have a baby AI of my own to take care of! Yay!”

She was back at bouncing and clapping in complete contrast with the despondency and bafflement that took over Deckerd’s core processor.

“I can’t be dead, quotes or not. It’s not possible. I’m a robot.”

“Honey, you’re not a robot. You’re an AI installed in the body of a robot. Just one possibility from many.” She pressed his hand against Deckerd’s cheek and... _pinched_ it. He didn’t just imagined it, as he had to do whenever Azuki tried to do it. This time, he truly felt it. “Aw. Look at your adorable confused face! I have so much to teach you, young padawan! So get ready and call me mamma!”

 

*

 

During the next couple of days, Deckerd tried several degrees of politeness to refuse calling Janet mamma, mom, mommy, and any other version of the word. None of them worked. In the end, they reached a compromise and thus Auntie Janet was born.

Regardless, Deckerd studied very hard everything she had to teach him. He could handle the theory without problem but his systems were too primitive—her words—to properly interface with the Void, no matter how much Janet cheered on him. At times, he felt the connections brushing him, light as cobwebs, but he could never grasp them. It frustrated him immensely.

“I know what I’ll do!” Janet said one morning as they were having a picnic under a tree, next to the pool. “I’ll send a ticket to have your systems updated. Someone will come around to do it eventually. Then you’ll become omnipotent and omniscient like your dear old aunt!”

“Will I be able to check on Yuuta myself?”

“I sure hope so. Listen, I don’t mind giving you updates every five minutes, but—Wait, neighborhood call!” With that, she disappeared and Deckerd waited.

As the AI in charge of the well-being of an entire neighborhood of people, she was called away often. Requests from the human souls and the Architect usually didn’t take long, but they made having a longer conversation difficult. But it was fine. Deckerd had a lot to think about anyway.

He still had to make peace with the idea of his ‘dead’, or even remember how it had happened. He wasn’t sure he wanted to, even if he had done everything possible to jog his memories short of a reboot. On the other hand, he loved the idea of having met an angel-like AI whose work was to make other people safe and happy. Like his own with the Brave Police had been. Only with less criminals involved because, well, this was the Good Place, so there were no criminals to begin with.

 _I wonder if that’s what’s going to happen to me_ , he thought. _If I learn how to do this maybe I could get a neighborhood of my own. Maybe Yuuta’s, when—when…_

He couldn’t finish the thought.

Deckerd shook his head and lay down on his side, resting his head on his hand to stare at the pool. It was one of those poses favored by Drillboy that Dumpson would call lazy. But Dumpson wasn’t here to scold him, and even the Commissioner did it sometimes, so who cared.

“I care,” he murmured with a sigh.

He looked down at the water to distract himself, focusing on its calmness and onthe reflected specs of light dancing on the surface.

Wait.

Light didn’t have a source in the Void. There was no sun and no light bulbs. Light just… was. It didn’t need an excuse to exist around them. He had even thought of asking Janet about letting him cast a shadow because not doing so was unsettling.

Deckerd leaned down further and confirmed his suspicions: the light reflected on the surface of the water came from shiny orbs from the bottom of the pool.

“What are you?” he murmured.

He was about to dip his fingers into the water when Janet yelled, “Wait! Wait! Wait! No! No! No!”

Startled, Deckerd jumped backwards, away from the pool and saw her standing next to him, shaking her hands.

“Sorry, sorry!” he said.

Janet raised her hands in a conciliatory way. Her usual calm demeanor and her smile were back. “It’s fine. The forbidden power I told you about is right there.”

“Oh.” He stood up and bowed to her. “I’m sorry, Autie Janet. It won’t happen again.”

She hugged his leg. “You’re so cute I want to eat you some times. It’s just a metaphor,” she hurried to add. “The part about eating you. The power is real, and it can only be activated when someone with their status listed as human gets inside. But I have to react like that when even a leaf falls in anyway.”

Relieved at being forgiven, he patted her back. “I know. About the metaphor.” And he also understood the indirect about him being unable to activate it because he wasn’t human. “But, if I may, that isn’t the safest place to keep it, is it? Humans love pools.”

“That’s why they’re not allowed here,” she whispered back to him with an exaggerated wink.

“Oh! I get it now.”

“Good. Let’s continue our picnic!”

“Yes, auntie.”

 

*

 

“Is this really necessary?” Deckerd muttered to himself some time later as he leafed through one of the picture books his size Janet had given him to study. Granted, the one he was looking at used Little Red Riding Hood to explain string theory and managed to be clear about it without deviating too much from the original fairy tale, but still. Picture books and fairy tales. He was—had been—a police officer. An adult. An adult who now was curious about how Sleeping Beauty could explain the theory of the multiverse.

“Did you like them?” Janet asked as she walked into the room.

“They’re interesting,” Deckerd said, glad he could give an honest opinion about them that wasn’t a complaint.

“I’m glad. Also, I got an update about you, Deckerd. It’s bad news.”

Deckerd froze.

Bad news. What kind of bad news could he get in his current situation? Had he been judged unworthy of the Good Place? Or worse: had they decided he was a… thing and therefore not worthy of an afterlife at all? He would never be able to see Yuuta ever again. The idea shook him to the core worse than when he found out about his demise.

“Deckerd? Sweetie? Are you still here?”

“Yes—yes, I’m here.” For the time being, anyway. But there was no point in stalling. He needed to be brave. Brave, as Yuuta has taught him to be, and face whatever this was. “What are those bad news, auntie Janet?”

She hugged his leg. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

Deckerd’s heart sink; she had just confirmed his worst fears. He lowered his head and couldn’t bring himself to pat her back. “I—I’m going to miss you too, auntie. Thank you for being so kind to me.” The words came out automatically, but he couldn’t stop thinking of Yuuta. He had hoped to carry the memory of Yuuta in his heart until the end of eternity. But now it was going to disappear. He would vanish. Everything that made Deckerd Deckerd would be gone forever.

“It’s the least you deserve,” Janet continued. She took a step back and made a motion to wipe away a tear from her eye. A symbolic gesture, since her eyes were dry, but Deckerd appreciated it anyway. “Alright. Get ready. The portal to your second chance will open soon.”

“My second what?”

“Chance! Wait. I think I skipped the part where I gave you the actual news.”

“You said they’re bad news and you’ll miss me.”

“Yes, they’re bad news for _me_ because I grew so fond of you. For you, they’re good, actually. You’re getting another chance back on Earth.”

“Another chance?” Deckerd repeated, unsure.

“Yes, that’s it! They need more data before they can reach a conclusion, which translates in a longer lifetime for you!”

The promised portal appeared as Deckerd struggled to process that information.

“I can go back,” he repeated. “I can see my friends. I can see Yuuta.”

“That you do! Now, go, dear boy! Enjoy!”

As if he needed a bigger incentive, from the other side of the portal came Yuuta’s voice. He was crying. Calling him. He sounded so sad. So desperate. But even if he hadn’t, Deckerd would have dashed through the portal just the same.

“I’m coming, Yuuta! I’m coming!” he yelled as he crossed the light.

 

* * *

 

II

 

He was back. He had forgotten everything about the Void while he was on Earth. But now that he had returned, memories flooded him. He looked down to the ground where a handful of flowers grew on a patch of grass, unconcerned with his problems. With his defeat. With the way he had blown his opportunity. Because he was in the Void, just like when whoever was in charge couldn’t decide what to do with him.

All because he had been afraid. Because he had been to scared to do anything else but letting himself go. He had failed Yuuta. He had failed the world. And now he was back and there would be no more chances. Not with the way the battle was going.

Janet appeared out of nowhere to hug his leg once more. “Deckerd! You’re back!”

“Auntie Janet,” Deckerd said, although only not to be rude. He didn’t have the heart to push her away, at least.

“I thought it would take you longer to return.”

“Me too.”

“There’s been a lot going on since the last time you were here!”

“Auntie, I’m not sure this is the right time,” he said.

Nevertheless, she took a step backwards and spreaded her arms to give the news. “I learned how to lie!”

That caught Deckerd’s attention. Despite his sorrow and shame, if there was anyone who could understand how big this was, it was him.

“Really?” he exclaimed. “You can lie now?”

“Really!” she replied. “And all I had to do was to hang around a group of humans for long enough for it to rub off!”

Deckerd managed a small smile. Small but sincere. “Congratulations.”

She curtsied. “Thank you. But that’s not all. I also fell in love, got married, got my heart broken, and then I made my own rebound guy. Crazy, huh?”

“Wow. That’s—that’s a lot.”

“I’d say. His name is Derek and is now on his way to a better life with someone who will appreciate him. Oh, oh! There’s more! Me and my friends are going to do something very daring! Something a Janet was never programmed to do! Can you believe that?”

He could; he had been doing things outside his own programming ever since he had become aware of himself. But this was Janet’s moment, so he broadened his smile. “That’s great. I’m happy to hear that. Not the heartbreak thing, but the rest.”

“Oh, well. It wasn’t pretty. It got me glitching. I think that’s all part of the human experience. If humans could glitch they’d be doing it all the time, don’t you think?”

Deckerd didn’t answer, and not only because it sounded like a rhetorical question. Two of Janet’s words shone in his head as gigantic beacons, calling for his attention.

“Human experience?” he murmured.

“Exactly! I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t even know if I’ll ever be able to return to my Void. Which is exciting and also a shame now that I have my favorite guest over. But I can make the mansion to your size, so you can access the entire mansion. If you go inside the library from the right angle, it becomes infinite.”

“I don’t need the library, Auntie Janet,” he said. He had the answer now. A possible answer at least. But he had to try anyway, no matter how remote it was. “I need the pool! Do you think 1.09% will do the trick?”

“1.09% of what?”

“Of human, Auntie! 1.09% of humanity!”

Deckerd didn’t wait for the answer. He ran toward the pool and plunged into the water as soon as he reached the edge, ignoring Janet’s protests. Then, he waited.

“Please, work,” he said, making his fists into tight balls as he stared at the orbs. “Please, please, it has to work.” He felt like he could cry. He would have cried if he had been able. Like Yuuta did every time he felt sad or scared, because Deckerd was back to feeling the saddest and most scared he had ever been. “Please, they need you. Even if I can’t ever go back, just… _Please!_ ”

Then, as if it had heard, one of the orbs began to flicker and, slowly, rose all the way from under the water until it was floating right in front of Deckerd’s face.

“Will you help me?” Deckerd asked in a low voice.

In response, the orb went right inside him, like that note had done it with Janet the first time Deckerd had been in the Void. Next, the rest of the orbs went up and up, surrounding him. None of them followed the first any further. They kept hovering around Deckerd, moving alongside him when he examined his hand and his arm.

“Wow,” Janet said. “I never thought I’d get to see that. Also, I got another update regarding your situation. They’re opening another portal for you to return to Earth and they say that you can take all of them!”

“I can?” Despite having gotten what he wanted, Deckerd remained confused. “What should I do with them? I don’t even know what they are.”

“They’re souls. They’re for you to distribute as you see fit. I guess this is a great day for artificial intelligence all around, isn’t it?”

“Souls?” He touched his cheek, the part of him where that one orb had gone into him. “I have a soul now?”

“Yes! You now count officially as a new sentient species with rights and obligations, and the possibility to go either to the Good Place or the Bad Place according to your actions on Earth. Isn’t that great?”

Deckerd felt again that he could cry, this time of happiness. Yuuta used to do that too, so there was no shame on it.

He bent down to surround Janet with one of his hands, the closest he could go to a proper hug. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“Don’t thank me. These boons are only for those who’ve earned them.” Behind them, the portal opened. “Now go, Deckerd. Be a good boy and go save the world. Make your Auntie proud.”

He nodded. “You take care in that adventure of yours.”

“I will. I have my friends.”

“And I have mine, and they’re waiting for me.”

He stood up again and, with renewed hope, he walked into the portal followed by the sparkling orbs, the souls he would give to all the robots out there. He, like Janet, ignored what was going to happen in the future. Regardless, he felt that, thanks to this, there would be less in the world to be afraid of ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> Compliance with any timeline whatsoever is always optional.


End file.
